Ask HN: How to get a job without degree? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How to get a job without degree?

#11

Post by jbhouse » Sun, Jul 26, 2020, 3:06 AM UTC

rxsel wrote: post #7

For context: No degree, Very comfortable (salary over 150, savings, family, etc) and in my mid 20s with 5 years of experience. Here’s how I went from being generationally poor to that: 1) Taught myself the skill. Really put my head down and learned. 2) Demonstrate you know what your doing and have a passion for it (fake it if you don’t and just want to get paid) through projects, contributions, volunteering, having y…

Can (anecdotally) confirm

Just did some interviews last week. Read through each candidate's experience section so I would have an idea of what they worked on and how I should calibrate my technical questions.

Stopped reading after the technical section because quite frankly educational attainment, in my experience, is at best loosely correlated with being able to think clearly and get things done.

Also, kudos to you rxsel!

Re: Ask HN: How to get a job without degree?

#12

Post by julianeon » Sun, Jul 26, 2020, 6:42 PM UTC

I think the mistake of most people starting out is:

They aim too high.

“I’m going to go from total unknown to hotshot JS developer at a VC-backed startup in 1 year”

That’s a tall mountain to climb. Maybe 1% of people accomplish that.

Consider starting off more modestly?

There’s lots of client facing or biz-dev like jobs that would love someone who knows the command line, and isn’t too proud to do that work.

“Yeah, your tool is alright, but I could build a web app...” No doubt you could. But learn the tool. There’s an undersupplied world of jobs for people willing to do that.

From there, escalate to ever more arcane jobs for tooling or enterprise or for devs, escalating in skill level at each one.

From that point in - 3 to 5 years from the start of your journey - you can pick up a client who would like you for your by-now-formidable programming skills.

But don’t try to jump to the 5 year mark from square one - my advice.

Re: Ask HN: How to get a job without degree?

#13

Post by doopy1 » Sun, Jul 26, 2020, 8:34 PM UTC

Just apply all over the place. You don't have to go for purely engineering roles, you can be a technical account manager or a sales engineer and then pivot.

Re: Ask HN: How to get a job without degree?

#14

Post by just_reader1 » Mon, Jul 27, 2020, 12:18 PM UTC

rocph wrote: post #8

I dont have degree but landed on awesome companies and now having own startup. being scared has process to conquer. once its done, you can fly with wings.

Mind if I ask what kind of startup and more about your journey?

I just started learning web dev, looking for some inspiration

Re: Ask HN: How to get a job without degree?

#15

Post by austincheney » Tue, Jul 28, 2020, 12:25 AM UTC

My education is one line on my resume. Because there is no common standard for hiring or qualifying software developers education is mostly, but not completely, irrelevant. I have worked with many excellent developers who never completed college.

Don’t think of software as a regulated profession. Software is a trade skill. When you practice in those terms you will become a better and more desirable job applicant.

Re: Ask HN: How to get a job without degree?

#16

Post by rxsel » Tue, Aug 04, 2020, 4:29 AM UTC

jbhouse wrote: post #11

rxsel wrote: post #7

For context: No degree, Very comfortable (salary over 150, savings, family, etc) and in my mid 20s with 5 years of experience. Here’s how I went from being generationally poor to that: 1) Taught myself the skill. Really put my head down and learned. 2) Demonstrate you know what your doing and have a passion for it (fake it if you don’t and just want to get paid) through projects, contributions, volunteering, having y…

Can (anecdotally) confirm Just did some interviews last week. Read through each candidate's experience section so I would have an idea of what they worked on and how I should calibrate my technical questions. Stopped reading after the technical section because quite frankly educational attainment, in my experience, is at best loosely correlated with being able to think clearly and get things done. Also, kudos to you…

Sorry for the late response, getting used to submitting on here, but thank you, and I agree, higher education in the US requires grit to get through especially if you’re not the “school type” yet it’s the baseline most people use to gauge someone’s “potential economic value” an ROI and I frankly just don’t agree with that. Some of the smartest, proactive, and most creative people I’ve ever met have been “structured education” adverse.

Im a huge huge huge believer of there being a massive opportunity in disrupting education, and I mean beyond the “shoehorn tech into everything” approach.

Education in the general term is the literal liberating factor within an individual. The more you understand the world around you the more confident you become in that world.

That’s why I push all my people and anyone who is willing to listen towards tech and other industries that are more “merit based” on the spectrum. As well as gravitating towards well paying trades that can fund their future intellectual endeavors.

I can go on about education forever but I’ll just stop before I get carried away :)

Thank you for the kind words @jbhouse